My Father's Day gift!

[Guest guest]

First, happy father's day to all you dads out there! Since as a single parent, I

find myself trying to fulfill both parental roles, I kinda claim father's day,

too

Anyway, Karrie had her follow up sleep study last night. Of course, the official

results aren't in yet, but the tech said she saw absolutely nothing of

concern!!! Karrie's pulse ox stayed in the " normal " range, no episodes of apnea

(she was dx'd with central sleep apnea in October). Karrie let the tech place

each lead with no problem. Last study, it took 3 of us to hold her down while

one placed the leads. We all had scratches, bite marks and bruises.

Karrie also had her hair styled for the very first time in her life a couple of

weeks ago. She even let the lady blow-dry it. She came over to me and said,

" Mom, now I look gorgeous! " .

So, with the 14 medical diagnoses she had one year ago, we've almost completely

erased all of them! She has been discharged from genetics, developmental peds,

GI (the vomiting 5-6 times per week was traced (by me) to Prairie Farms

chocolate milk making her sick), pulmonary. We see cardiology once every 2

years, neurosurgery every 2 years, pysch every 6 months (just to monitor one of

the 2 meds she's still on) and ortho once a year!!!! Woooo-hoooo!!!!!

Best of all, Karrie is talking very clearly (I had just bought a $8,000 DynaVox)

and saying things like " Awesome, great idea, Mom " . I asked her the other day

where her sister was and she said " I have no idea " !! I will never take her

talking for granted again!! For those of you who don't know, Karrie lost her

verbal skills, along with most every other skill, around the age of 5. She's 10

now and just regaining everything!

She had been diagnosed with bipolar, tourette's, ocd and a list of others. Her

official dx now is DS with very mild autism.

So, happy father's day to all of you who fill the role (!).

Sue mom to Kate 16 (who is leaving today for a college music and theatre camp)

and Karrie 10 years old and my beautiful, beautiful little lady!!!!